I found the essay "The Great Lawsuit" by Margaret Fuller to be very fascinating. As I am interested in Cultural Studies including race theories and Feminism this essay was right up my alley. For this short blog I would like to highlight a couple of strategies and quotes that really made this memorable.
On page 303-304, right at the beginning of this section, Fuller provides a playful, and surprisingly funny, simulated discourse between a common man and her more equal-minded self. When reading this I was struck by Fuller's ability to flow around . Many authors, providing such potentially inflammatory and revolutionary discourse, would not deploy a playful strategy with the reader (for example see picture of John Brown, the author of another text we read "The Laboring Class"-- he pretty much beats the reader to death with visions of an apocalypse of armed workers). In Fuller's case though, she really gets to the heart of her essay by using humor, a very human technique, to help the reader feel that she is in control of herself and the ability to make an intelligent argument about equality. This technique, enjoyable to read, helps frame her as an intelligent, powerful, knowledgeable, and equal partner of her men readers.
I also liked her attack and dismissal of the phrase "women and children". This shows that Fuller was very aware of the rhetoric of language and the way it could be used to paint members of a society in a lesser and diminished light. To recognize this potential flaw in thinking about terms displays her deftness at not just confronting sexism on the more obvious levels but also in some of the shadows that sexism operated (and operates) in. To attack this subtlety of this power is to take a strike at it's most potentially dangerous part.
Another key in her essay is her discussion of the "sphere" that women occupy. I was really attracted to her understanding that human kind and the individuals that make it up need the ability to pursue "expansion". This "expansion" was not limited to political, social, traveling, or any other thing. Rather, it encompassed all of these varying areas and opened up an understanding that expansion in all areas is not only valuable but necessary for individuals to exist. This essay wasn't just an extremist place men in the woman's limited sphere like it could have been, but rather a call for men and women to consider themselves more equal and work at expanding both their spheres for the good of all.
Finally, to end my discussion I would like to end with a highlighting of a concept she points out on 319. "Male and female represent the two sides of a great radical dualism. But, in fact, they are perpetually passing into one another. Fluid hardens to solid, solid rushes to fluid. There is no wholly masculine man, no wholly feminine woman." This short paragraph is very exciting in the prospects it puts forth. I feel as though she is opening up the grounds for a more individualistic interpretation of how men and women should be considered. She is debunking the essence of man and woman. She is challenging the supposed male vs. female conflict. By exposing the fluid nature of people to flow from one to the other she is accomplishing much in elevating her sex as well as the cultural awareness of humanity.
I would have to conclude what I intended to be a "short" blog post by noting that I think this selection from Margaret Fuller may have been my favorite reading of the semester so far. She wrote with such conviction, such awareness of style and language, that I feel she has been the shining light in my feelings towards transcendentalism thus far... something quite impressive for a man who supposedly shouldn't identify to say!
*LINK to Margaret Fuller Society!
No comments:
Post a Comment